1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an atomic force microscope (AFM) drying system and an AFM, and more particularly to an AFM drying system that can be externally installed into an AFM, and an AFM including the AFM drying system.
2. Related Art
In the modern scanning probe microscope (SPM), the acting force between the probe and the specimen is the sum of many acting forces, one of which is a water-film siphon force that is frequently seen in the wetter country, such as Taiwan. The attracting force, caused by the water film having about the nanometer level (about 5 nm) and attached to the probe or specimen due to wet, has the significant influence and disturbance on the attraction measurement of the scan head. On the other hand, when the probe scans the fragile specimen, the water-film siphon force attracts the probe to heavily squeeze the specimen to damage the specimen, and the clear image cannot be generated.
The water-film siphon force is a problem encountered when many operators operate the scan probe microscopes. Generally speaking, upon measurement of the electrostatic charge force or the magnetic force and in order to eliminate the disturbance of the water film acting force, the AFM is placed in a nitrogen cabinet or a moistureproof cabinet to keep the experimental environment at a constant humidity or a highly dried environment. The measurement of the acting force between the biometrics molecules, the measurement of the Van der Waals force or the scanning of the fragile specimen is performed by directly immersing the probe and the specimen into the liquid environment to eliminate the influence caused by the water film acting force.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a conventional AFM. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, the AFM is placed in a nitrogen cabinet or a moistureproof cabinet. A conventional AFM 300 comprises an AFM scan head device 310, a platen 320 and a sample supporting substrate 340. The AFM scan head device 300 comprises a scan head 311. The scan head 311 is to be in contact with an object K on the specimen 210. In addition, the conventional AFM 300 is placed in a nitrogen cabinet or moistureproof cabinet 350. The nitrogen cabinet 350 is introduced with nitrogen to hold the dryness in the nitrogen cabinet 350, while the dryness of the moistureproof cabinet 350 is held by way of moisture control.
However, the two frequently seen methods have their own drawbacks. Regarding one drawback, a nitrogen cabinet or moistureproof cabinet 350 applicable to the scan probe microscope system also has to overcome the inconvenience of the user in operating the instrument and to facilitate the line construction. Thus, a nitrogen cabinet or moistureproof cabinet for the combined SPM dedicated environment control has the price of several hundreds of thousands, has the huge size and cannot be easily operated. On the other hand, if the probe operates in the liquid environment, the problem of liquid contamination or the problem that the sample liquid cannot be easily replaced is encountered.
Thus, the invention provides a more novel, convenient and cheap mechanism design form removing the water film acting force.